Notes and Editorial Reviews

If anything, Hermine Haselböck’s recital of Zermlinsky Lieder is even greater than her Mahler disc, if only because pianist Florian Henschel is right there with her, emotionally as well as musically, in a way that pianist Russell Ryan (on the Mahler disc) is not. But this isRead more also a remarkable slice of this composer’s songs, from the early and the lighthearted (but not lightly or cheaply written) waltz songs and 1889–90 songs through his masterpiece, the six songs of death set to texts by Maurice Maeterlinck.

Even in the earlier, somewhat lighter material, one is drawn to Zemlinsky’s very special and personal sound world, which borders on the melancholy even in his upbeat songs. I’m sure it was this very personal touch of melancholy that attracted his pupil Schoenberg to him—there is a similar strain running through much of the latter’s early music as well—and Haselböck’s rich yet bright, lyrical yet powerful mezzo tone and exceptional powers of interpretation take over from there. Three of these song groups were published posthumously, in the mid 1990s. Haselböck chooses, very effectively, to end her recital with the lightest of them all, the two cabaret songs of 1901,which oddly enough seem to hover in style between Mahler and Weill.

Other versions of the Maeterlinck songs include a very good one by Anne-Sofie von Otter with pianist Cord Garben on DG 427348 (a two-CD set on which von Otter and Barbara Bonney also split the Waltz Songs), but I have a flash for you: Haselböck’s voice is richer, fuller, and more expressive than von Otter’s. This disc was recorded in 2003 but issued in 2008. You won’t find a better one-disc introduction to Zemlinsky’s songs anywhere.

Customer Reviews

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